I must say, it has been interesting going back to school to get my master’s. I received my undergrad degree not too long ago, in May 2005, but wow have things changed! I barely knew what a blog was two years ago, and now I am asked to blog for practically all of my classes.
In everyday life, I see blogs being used as either diaries or editorials. People need an outlet, either to process their daily lives (one of my friends has recently set up a Baby blog, chronicling her last few weeks of pregnancy), or to voice their opinions about various topics.
Personally, I have only used a blog so far as a graduate student because it’s an assignment. I can see myself eventually blogging “for fun,” or for my students, but right now I’m a little short on time, since I already have to blog for several classes at once. Plus, before I use a blog to communicate with students and parents, I want to become more comfortable with the multimedia tools that would make my blog more than just typed summaries/announcements. I want to master how to create, post, and manipulate video and audio files. I have a rough understanding of some programs, but I need more practice!
I like that communication via blogs is concrete. If I used a blog to consistently communicate to parents and students about what was going on in class, it would be much more reliable than the daily question, “What did you do in school today, Jimmy?” Go to the teacher’s blog, and voila: it can be all there, complete with pictures, video, audio, and hyperlinks.
As a teacher, I’d love to get my students blogging on a regular basis. Pretty much any unit that I currently teach could be transformed and the bar raised in terms of student participation if I could incorporate blogs. The bar does need to be raised, and the curriculum does need to be updated, and turning to more digital writing really is the way to go, I think.
One problem that I know I’ll run into, however, is ensuring all my students have access to required technology. I do not work in a district where every kid has a computer at home, and if they do, they don’t necessarily have internet access. Many of those same students also cannot stay after school because they have to catch a bus, and neither do they have a study hall during the day because they are taking an extra reading class to “catch up” to the rest of their peers. So, if I make blogs an integral part of the curriculum, when are those students going to get it done, without taking the entire class to the computer lab? Doing so seems to defeat the purpose of blogging, anyway. Aren’t students supposed to blog when the ideas strike (some time before the due date), not when the teacher schedules a computer lab session?
I think you have a lot of good thoughts here. I also talked a little in my blog about the time factor. I've had to blog for other classes and have had a mix of professors who respect the time it takes and others who think it's just a fun little add on and don't stop to see how much time it takes to create and respond to blogs. Your thinking out loud toward the end of your post about making blogging happen in a scheduled way might be just a way to start. Eventually it might be something students want to take off on their own, but for those who are new to the medium (as a creator), maybe writing prompts and structure would be a way to get into the habit.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to have a blog for my students/parents last year in my class, but the school decided not to go in that direction yet. If I did that, I would want to have tight control over who can view it. I would also really like to create a blog like you talked about (video, hyper texts, etc built in), but for me, I don't want to wait for that day to come. If I make a silent deal with myself that my blog will have lots of bells and whistles, I may be afraid of doing it because I wouldn't live up to my committment! Starting small is okay too :) I think you have lots of creative ideas here and hopefully you can implement a few to test the waters and see how it works in your community/classroom.
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ReplyDeleteYou have some great ideas. I agree that becoming comfortable is the key to having success with this. Having to use the different methods in classes will definitely help build confidence. I also agree with Lisa, that starting small is OK. The time it would take to keep up a blog is a concern for me. Even just in class, I spent time reading all the postings on the Ning. I could see it being very time consuming. We use a website at our school to post homework and that is helpful to the students but an extra for me. I think starting small and doing it well is the first step. It is all new and interesting and I am excited to learn more.
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